Of course not — and by now it seems that even financial reporters get it. The main cause of the slight uptick, according to news reports, was a better-than-expected durable goods number, which brings marginally closer the day when the Fed might finally start raising rates. In other words, it was economic optimism, not pessimism, behind the rate rise.

And according to the FT Alphaville post linked above, a second reason may have been a statement by Fitch that a US downgrade is less likely. That’s right, reduced fears of a downgrade lead to higher, not lower, US borrowing costs.

Why? Because scare talk from the rating agencies feeds the deficit scolds, making destructive austerity more likely, and therefore pushing back the date when the Fed might raise rates. You might say that the only thing we have to fear from the rating agencies is fear itself — not market fear, because the bond markets don’t seem to care, but political fear, the instinctive tendency to overreact to talk of bond vigilantes.

All of which is just a bit more evidence that everything the Very Serious People have been saying about confidence and the bond markets is wrong.